This course will focus on the linguistic and social phenomena
surrounding language contact. We will examine the typology of contact
situations and a broad range of phenomena including language
maintenance, shift and death; diglossia; koineization; pidginization
and creolization; language intertwining or the creation of mixed
languages such as Michif, Ma’a, and Media Lengua; Sprachbunds and
language areas; codeswitching, lexical borrowing, and grammatical
borrowing including calquing and replication. We will also examine
some of the basic findings on bilingualism: definitions, typologies
of bilingualism, issues of bilingualism and the human brain, and
issues of bilingual or multilingual speech communities. Much of the
material examined in this course will be drawn from situations where
French is one of the languages in contact, whether in North America,
Africa, Europe or the South Pacific, and students will have
opportunities in course assignments and a term paper to explore these
varieties in greater detail. The course is cross-listed with L625.